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Mark 2 Constitution
This Constitution was in effect until the 17th of March 2017, when Democraciv Mark 2 ended The Constitution is a document created by Nuktuuk, sunnymentoaddict, KingLadislavJagiello, Ragan651 and Divexz. The documents purpose; to establish an outline which details how a game of Democraciv will work. It was created as a ruleset which cannot be ignored and must be followed for the proper operation of government within Democraciv. The document outlines the different branches of government and the roles within them, it also sets in place the rules to how those branches and the roles within them work, their duties, their authority and the length of time individuals may serve within those roles. How it Works The constitution, as stated above, is intended as a set of rules to ensure our democratic government runs as smoothly and effectively as possible. It does this by setting out the Articles of the Constitution, within these Articles, the rules for Moderators, their number, power, length of time they may serve, what happens when they do wrong, all of these things are laid out in Article 1 of the Constitution. These rules, unlike legislation cannot simply be repealed by a small group of people, they cannot be stepped on and changed by law within the legislature, not even the ministry can change the constitution. It's word is the ultimate law, and it is not to be trifled with. Articles of the Constitution An Article of the Constitution can be considered a chapter of sorts in a book, each separate Article handles a different section of our government, Article one handles everything having to do with Moderators and their duties, the second Article lays out The Legislative Branch and its duties, so on and so forth. It does this in different sections, section one of Article one is titled "Establishment of Moderator Offices", this section details how many moderators there may be, stating "There shall be one "Head Moderator" along with three "Deputy Moderators" who shall form a "Triumvirate"." It then goes on to say that these positions may create more positions that handle their duties under them. These Articles cover everything from moderation at the top to how the constitution itself can be amended at the bottom. Sections of the Articles of the Constitution Whereas each Article could be considered a "chapter", a section would be considered a "sub-chapter" of sorts. While an Article handles an overall subject (i.e. "Moderation"), each individual section handles a different aspect of that subject (i.e. Article 1, Section 2, "Head Moderator"). Using Article 1 as an example I'll lay out how this works: Article 1: Moderation Section 1: Establishment of Moderator Offices (a) There shall be one “Head Moderator” along with three “Deputy Moderators” who shall form a “Triumvirate.” (b) There may be positions inferior to the Deputy Moderators established by the Head Moderator if he or she deems it necessary. © The phrases “moderators” or “moderating team” or “moderation” or “moderation team” in this Constitution shall refer to the summation of these offices. As you can see, section 1 simply lays out the positions themselves, it does not give them power, term lengths or anything else, it simply creates them and says that more may be created by them at their own discretion. Lets look at section 2. Section 2: Head Moderator (a) The Head Moderator is the highest ranking moderating office on /r/democraciv. The Head Moderator possesses ultimate authority over all decisions made by other moderating officials, and possesses the same powers as the Deputy Moderators, excepting the removal of the Head Moderator him/herself. The Head Moderator is also charged with dealing with any crises or other events outside the authority of the other moderating officials. (b) The Head Moderator is responsible for maintaining the voter registry and conducting elections in a timely manner as specified in 7, Sec. 2. They are also responsible for counting the votes using a twitch.tv live stream to be recorded and posted on the main subreddit. Being able to do this is key to having this position. © The Head Moderator may develop meta rules and policies so long as they are subordinate to and don't interfere with this constitution, except in the case that there is something not covered here, which is addressed in 9, Sec. 4. (d) The Head Moderator has no term length and no term limit; it is an indefinite role. As you can see this section outlines just what the "Head Moderator" is and does. This section goes on all the way to paragraph "g" with several sub paragraphs, so if you'd like to know everything about the "Head Moderator" go check out the Constitution itself. So with that, perhaps you understand what the difference is, Article 1 covers everything about moderation, section 1 creates the Moderation team itself and section 2 outlines what the Head Moderator is, does, and how long they can be in office (as well as many other things), section 3 goes into the "Deputy Moderators" and outlines the same things as section 2 except for the Deputies. Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of how the Constitution is laid out. Amending the Constitution Article 9: Constitutional Upkeep Article 9 covers everything having to do with the amendment of the constitution, in order to amend it, you must follow the rules set out in this Article. Section 1: Protectors of the Constitution Section 1 creates a group whose duty is to ensure that the constitution is not violated, they must keep a separate copy of the constitution and make sure that any proposed amendment does not violate what is already laid out by the constitution itself. Section 2: General Amendments to the Constitution Section 2 details why an Amendment should or should not be made, it also lays out how it should be done. For instance; "Changes to gameplay should be done through legislation, not through amending the constitution. It should only be amended if it is standing in the way of a necessary or very popular change." This tells us when an amendment should not be made to the constitution; "In order to amend the constitution, one must first gather a petition to do so signed by at least 10% of registered voters. Once this has been achieved, the amendment is put to a vote, where a supermajority of registered voters (⅔) must approve of the change. Anything can be amended, save for items laid out in 9, Sec. 5." and this tells us how proposing an amendment works. Section 3: Simple Constitutional Fixes This section is intended as a simple way for the moderators to fix a typo basically, anything from grammatical errors to punctuation can be changed by the moderators themselves using this section, so long as it does not change the meaning of what is said and is only making a simple fix, it can be done without a petition by the moderators. Section 4: Emergency Constitutional Amendments If a major mistake is discovered within the constitution, something that must be covered for the game to be continued or something that is otherwise considered in need of an "urgent" change, the Head Moderator with the consent of the Deputy Moderators may go to the "Protectors" (The group created by section 1) and make an Emergency Amendment to the constitution without a petition or vote. However, after the amendment is made, there must be a vote held within three days (72 hours) of the change,where two thirds (⅔) of the registered voters must approve of the change or the amendment will be considered "null" meaning that it will be removed. Section 5: Limits on Constitutional Amendments This section details exactly which changes cannot be made and any special circumstances where only certain people may make a change at all. For instance it states that no amendments can be made to Article 9, this article, at all. Period. Cannot be done by anyone. Well, I hope this helps you to understand how and why an amendment is made, lets move on to the article summmary for the constitution itself. Under Construction. Articles of the Constitution Summary Article One: Moderation Article one of the constitution deals with moderation, what it is, who it is, their authority, and their term length. Article Two: Legislative Branch Article two of the constitution deals with the legislature, what it is, it's duties, authority and term length. To learn more, head to the Legislative Branch page. Article Three: Executive Branch Article three of the constitution deals with the executive branch, ministers, mayors and general, what they are, their duties, authority and term length. Article Four: Judicial Branch Article four of the constitution deals with the judicial branch, the Justices and the positions below them, what they are, their duties, authority and term length. Article Five: Voter Registry Article five of the constitution deals with the voter registry, what it is, how it works, how to maintain it. Further work on fleshing this article out is pending.